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Posted October 28, 2012 by Seth Paul in News
 
 

Box Office Weekend: No Films are New Films; Newcomers Can’t Topple the Favorites

With three major new releases, it is a little surprising that only one ended up in the top three, and barely at that. Cloud Atlas, with an estimated $9.4 million, was the highest grossing of the new releases, but the ambitious multi-era epic only placed third overall, behind the current favorites Argo (an estimated $12.4 million) and Hotel Transylvania (an estimated $9.5 million). While grosses are much lower than this weekend, at least Argo and Hotel Transylvania have tidy sums under their belts, while Cloud Atlas, with a reported $102 million budget, is having a rough beginning, and will likely have to rely on the foreign receipts to see anything other than a drop on its returns.

With its initial audience gone, Paranormal Activity 4 saw much of its second weekend evaporate; earning only an estimated $8.7 million…an amount still enough to make it profitable if this was its first weekend, but a far cry from its $29 million actuals the week before. Taken 2, on the other hand, is on a much more relaxing decline, its estimated $8 million an acceptably low drop for its fourth week (and considering its $117.3 million earnings in the domestic market alone, nothing it need worry about). But both films still performed admirably against the debut of Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. The horror film, panned by critics and paying audiences alike, is currently tied in its estimates with Taken 2, but as word of mouth spreads it could find itself dropping off more like Paranormal Activity 4. Only its relatively low $20 million budget is keeping it from being in as rough a position as Cloud Atlas in terms of making up its budget.

Here Comes the Boom with Kevin James held up well enough for its third week with an estimated $5.5 million, though luckily it does not have as much ground to make up as previously thought…with a budget of $42 million, roughly half that of the last few films James has made, its $30.6 million in domestic ticket sales is not quite as poor a performance as it could have been, and could still make it back before it leaves theaters. Sinister, with its estimated $5.1 million, has made out extraordinarily well, earning $39.5 million on its paltry $3 million investment. And considering its reviews, Alex Cross has weathered its own storms, tying Sinister with an estimated $5.1 million, but still unlikely to make up its $35 million budget. And at the bottom, Fun Size, the teen-aimed comedy starring Victoria Justice, did not make any friends with critics, and did not seem to make them at the box office either…it made an estimated $4.1 million. Its inauspicious start does not bode well for success, even with a $14 million budget.

Weekend Box-Office (October 26th – October 28th)

  1. Argo…$12.4 million
  2. Hotel Transylvania…$9.5 million
  3. Cloud Atlas…$9.4 million
  4. Paranormal Activity 4…$8.7 million
  5. Taken 2…$8 million
  6. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D…$8 million
  7. Here Comes the Boom…$5.5 million
  8. Sinister…$5.1 million
  9. Alex Cross…$5.1 million
  10. Fun Size…$4.1 million
Seth Paul

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."